COLOMBO – An International Monetary Fund (IMF) team will visit Sri Lanka next week, the agency said, while President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said he expected a budget to be presented and passed in parliament by February.
“An IMF team led by Peter Breuer, senior mission chief for Sri Lanka, is expected to visit Colombo next week to conduct the third review for Sri Lanka’s economic reform program supported by the IMF’s Extended Fund Facility,” a spokesperson said.
President Dissanayake said at his last campaign rally that the mission would arrive soon after the election to conduct the third review of the program.
“We will finish the review by the end of January/early February,” he said. “Then we can achieve considerable stability in the economy.”
For an IMF program review to pass, a staff-level agreement has to be crafted with fiscal and monetary targets for the next year. For that, a budget in line with program parameters is required.
President Dissanayake said a budget is planned for February. Until then a vote-on-account will be presented.
“Because we are setting up new ministries we cannot do a budget in a hurry,” he pointed out, adding that in December the government will do a 4-month vote on account.
“But we do not want to wait for 4 months. By the end of February, we hope to approve a budget. It will have benefits for the people,” he said.
He also noted that while a 3,000 rupee allowance has already been given to pensioners, some deserving people have missed out on Aswesuma, pledging to review the beneficiary list and provide the facilities to those people as well.
He also said his government would reduce the PAYE tax to a reasonable level, remove the VAT on food items and give a payment for children to buy school items.
A state worker salary hike will be made, he said.
Debt restructuring is expected to be completed by December and debt repayments will begin in 2028, he said.
“We have calculated how much we have to pay in 2028,” he said. “We have a strong belief that the NPP can build an economy that will be bigger than the debt repayment share.”
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